


Takeout

by ProblematicPines



Series: Valentine's Day 2019 [5]
Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Best Friends, Bonding, Dinner, Emily is just along for the ride, F/M, Friendship/Love, Gen, Love, Pining, Platonic Love, Sammy and Ben are dorks, The X-Files References, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day Fluff, We Stan healthy relationships in this house
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-28 12:45:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17787662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProblematicPines/pseuds/ProblematicPines
Summary: Valentine’s Day was an agonising experience for him every year. Ever since Jack had left - no, not left; ever since Jack had been taken, Sammy had found it impossible to find any joy in any annual events that came along. Birthdays, holidays; he hated them all equally. None of them had any bearing on his life since Jack had been snatched up all those years ago.Fortunately for him, Ben and Emily weren’t gonna let him wallow in his misery a day longer.





	Takeout

“We’re back!” Ben announced as he bounced through the front door of his shared apartment. His arms were laiden with a few essentials he’d picked up at the store; essentials whose mere presence were required to make sure that this night went as well as possible. With him hopped Emily, who was equally laiden with just as many bags.

Ironically, she was handling their weight much better than her boyfriend.

Sammy, who had been sitting on the couch, craned his neck in order to watch his roommate come staggering down the hall.

“I can tell,” he responded dryly. “Hey, Emily!” he greeted upon registering the petite girl hobbling along. Emily bent her legs at the knees and shifted the weight of the bags into one arm, so that she could wave enthusiastically at him with the other.

“Hi, Sammy!” she squeaked. “How are you?”

“Fine, thanks,” Sammy replied. That wasn’t entirely true, but he wasn’t going to dampen the mood, especially when his friends had gone so far to help him.

Sammy felt a pang of guilt about letting his friends carry so many things all by themselves, especially when he was much stronger and bigger than both of them.He took note of Ben’s uneven gait as he shifted from foot to foot, being careful so as to not accidentally drop anything he’d bought. “Need any help there? You’re two steps away from dropping everything.”

“Nah, man, I’m good,” Ben called, still sounding pretty optimistic. He adjusted the plastic bags to flash Sammy a quick yet genuine smile. “Thanks though.” He nodded his head in the direction of the book Sammy was holding in his hands. “Jus’ keep on reading. We’ll let you know when dinner’s done.”

Sammy quirked an eyebrow.

“I can make dinner,” he offered hopefully. He made dinner every day, and that had kinda been their schedule for several months now. Ben allowed him to live with him in his apartment, and Sammy would take care of themselves and the place in ways he hadn’t back when he had been living on his own.

He hadn’t looked after his own or anyone else’s living space since...well.

Still, Ben shook his head as he lumbered his way over to the kitchen. He set everything down on the counter with a loud clatter and rustle of plastic bags. Emily followed close behind, and wiped her forehead with the back of her sleeve. She just barely managed to catch a bottle of red wine that very nearly fell out of the bags, and set it carefully down on the counter.  She sighed and turned to face her boyfriend’s roommate. “That’s very sweet of you, Sammy.”

Despite the flushed look in his cheeks, Ben’s eyes were big and happy, as well as determined.

“Thanks for the offer dude, but like I said; Emily and I making dinner tonight,” Ben stated matter-of-factly. He puffed out his chest and put his hands on his hips firmly to demonstrate his point. “I’m a grown man-”

Sammy chortled, biting back the impulse to quip a very obvious and very unoriginal joke. Emily cast him a faux-angry look, clearly telling him to keep quiet.

“-and I wanna do something for you for a change. And if that means making you a meal, then so be it. It’s the least I can do.”

“The least we can do,” Emily chirped in, linking arms with her boyfriend of average height.

Sammy smiled gratefully, but still felt a little twinge in his stomach. “Thanks, Ben,” was all he could say. “You too, Emily.” He felt obligated to say more, but he didn’t want to seem over-emotional over something as casual as a change in dinner plans. Fortunately that was all it took for Ben to nod curtly, then set about preparing the meal using the stuff he’d bought from the store.

“Don’t mention it, Sammy,” Emily said in the same chipper tone as Ben. She rolled up her sleeves, exposing her smooth brown arms, and set about emptying the grocery bags onto the laminate countertop.

Sammy was just about to turn back around and continue reading the book he’d fished out of the stack that Emily had left behind for the boys to share the last time she came over, when Ben pulled something out of one of the grocery bags.

“Hey, dad, catch!” Ben called, tossing it across the apartment. Sammy caught it mid-air; it was a DVD. In fact, it was an X-Files DVD. Sammy turned it over in his hands quizzically.

“We’re gonna be watching that while we’re eating dinner,” Ben explained, clearly sensing Sammy’s confusion. “Keepin’ it casual, y’know?”

“You really know how to win a man over, Ben Arnold,” Sammy remarked with a crooked grin. Ben snorted. “I’m just tryna lighten up your mood, man,” Ben replied. “Lord knows you haven’t moved from that couch the whole time we were gone. I bet you’ve permanently grafted yourself into that seat.”

“I have too,” Sammy replied, faux offended at such an unthinkable suggestion. “I went to the bathroom. Twice.”

Ben rolled his eyes, and then properly set about preparing the dinner he’d arranged for Sammy without any further issue.

Sammy smiled fondly; he really appreciated all that Emily and Ben were doing for him. He hadn’t felt such a connection with two people in ages. He really loved and appreciated them being there for him, even when he’d been nothing short of a dick to them (heh), but that didn’t automatically chase away the gnawing sensation he’d been feeling all day.

In the pit of his stomach, a twisting twinge been lingering there, coiling away and stopping him from fully focusing on anything. The book he’d been reading had been a mindless distraction, but it kept on distracting him.

Sammy knew all too well what it was. It was his pain about having to endure yet another celebration that should have been shared with Jack in his arms.

Valentine’s Day was an agonising experience for him every year. Ever since Jack had left - no, not left; ever since Jack had been taken, Sammy had found it impossible to find any joy in any annual events that came along. Birthdays, holidays; he hated them all equally. None of them had any bearing on his life since Jack had been snatched up all those years ago.

Fortunately for him, Ben and Emily weren’t gonna let him wallow in his misery a day longer. 

Sammy had tried insisting to them earlier that day about the two of them taking this day for themselves, to love and appreciate one another. This was their first Valentine’s Day, after all, and Sammy felt immensely guilty about taking away such a special milestone in any blooming relationship so that they would cater to his angsty needs instead. But it had been their idea, after all; they must have wanted to do this. Truly, if either of them really wanted to just go and celebrate with a fancy meal in town or a romantic boat-ride on Lake Hatchenhaw, then Sammy wouldn’t have opposed their wishes at all.

“They want to make sure I’m doing well,” Sammy told himself as he idly flipped through the book he was holding, interest in it completely diminished by now. They could have just done that with a phone call to check in on him, but Sammy couldn’t just push them away, especially after they had done so much for him lately.

Mercifully, none of them had even mentioned Jack’s name, nor had Lily burst in to ruin the evening they had planned. Usually, Sammy would have accused them of taking pity on him, but at that moment, all he really wanted was to feel familiarity and companionship on such a painful day.

Dinner didn’t take that long to make, and it was one that Sammy hadn’t been expecting. Since it was Valentines’ Day, he’d been expecting a cliche romantic dinner with candlelight and sweet meat drenched in some surreal cuisine. He’d also expected to feel like a third wheel, and made a mental note to not intrude on Ben or Emily.

And yet, when Ben called Sammy’s name to announce the meal was finished as he and Emily carried over their plates, Sammy had been pleasantly surprised. Sitting on the coffee table in front of him was a mixture of rice, sweet-and-sour chicken, and peppered curry.

“Takeout?” Sammy inquired.

Ben shook his head as he took a seat beside Sammy, nudging him with his butt to get the older man to scoot over to make room for himself and his girlfriend on the couch.

“Homemade takeout!” he announced, sounding proud of himself for whipping up such a simple yet tasty dish.

“So...just homemade food?” Emily chuckled, setting down the bottle of red wine on the coffee table along with three glasses.

“This wouldn’t have been my first choice for a Valentine’s Day meal,” Sammy remarked cynically. Ben shrugged, totally indifferent to Sammy’s trademark sardonic humour.

“Like I said: keepin’ it simple, man,” he insisted coolly. “I know that Emily doesn’t need a huge fancy banquet to let her know that I love her to death.” He slung an arm around Sammy’s shoulders, drawing him into a tight embrace. “And I know that you don’t either.”

Sammy had to admit; it was really sweet of Ben to treat him with such sincerity and adoration. The darker, more bitter aspect of his mind would have said that he was undeserving of such attention, yet Sammy could squander down that inner demon for just one night if it meant enjoying the company of his closest friends and forgetting all about the pain he’d been feeling for so long.

“Are we gonna get watching that DVD or what?” Emily interjected, already impatiently bouncing her knees in anticipation for watching the X-Files. Ben nodded hurriedly and jumped up to push the newly-purchased disc into the DVD player. His arm left Sammy’s shoulders, leaving behind  an abrupt sensation of loss around Sammy.

Hopefully it wouldn’t last much longer.

**Author's Note:**

> This was my fifth and final Fic for Valentine's Day this year! I really wanted to write more Fics, as I had ideas in mind for "Over The Garden Wall", "Steven Universe" and "Star VS The Forces Of Evil". But due to time constraints, I've unfortunately had to limit myself to only five.  
> But still, the ones that I did write were ones that I am immensely proud of! I have never written so many stories in so few days before, especially when each story is over 1k words in length! That's a personal record of mine that I doubt I'll ever be able to beat!  
> But hey - maybe next year?
> 
> This Fic is full of pure, platonic love between Sammy and Ben, as well as cute romantic fluff between Ben and Emily. I ache for the time when Jack can join them and go on double dates every single night, but I will have to make do with all these dorks for now!
> 
> As always, comments and kudos are very much appreciated!


End file.
